Before you go Chris Campbell's route because messing around with the registry can get you into a whole load of trouble if you're not careful (no offence Chris), could you please try running this Microsoft fix which was written to address the problem of not being able to maintain an installation: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

If it doesn't work, post again and I'll provide you with some screenshots to help you delete the key Chris described.

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, and regardless if I install Adobe Flash Player for IE 9 or Firefox 11, the installation works only until I restart my computer. After restarting, sites like youtube don't prompt me to reinstall flash but just show a blank location where the video would play. The plugins are still installed on the machine and both Firefox and IE still recognize that the plugins are there. They just don't work.

I have repeatedly tried uninstalling and reinstalling the flash player and have also tried the recommended step of deleting "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/x-shockwave-flash" with no success.

shows my flash player version after I reinstall flash, but after restarting my machine and visiting the site, neither the version of flash nor an error message is shown. Only an empty space where the message would go.

After running through the complete cleaning process flash was completely disabled (as it should be) so visiting sites like Youtube prompted for me to install flash. Flash didn't work again until I reinstalled, however I got the same issues as before. Restarting my computer causes flash to stop sorking.

After running through the complete cleaning process flash was completely disabled (as it should be) so visiting sites like Youtube prompted for me to install flash. Flash didn't work again until I reinstalled, however I got the same issues as before. Restarting my computer causes flash to stop sorking.

Reboot the machine and you'll see an additional logon option called Administrator. Choose that and then hit Enter to boot to the desktop (the Aministrator account doesn't have a password by default).

Disable your antivirus to prevent it interfering with the installation. If you have AVAST antivirus, right click the orange icon in systray, go to Avast Shields Control and disable all shields for 1 hour. Otherwise consult this list for instructions on how to disable it: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic114351.html

I note, however, that the "Shockwave Flash Object" does not appear as published by "Adobe Systems Incorporated" but rather as "Not Available" even though it is enabled. The "Shockwave Active X Control" is listed as published by "Adobe Systems Incorporated."

I followed the procedure but noticed that next to Shockwave Flash Object the publisher is listed as "Not Available" yet is enabled, just like jimsup33. I visited the Adobe Flash Player test site to verify if the player was working and it still is not.

2. Download and extract the attached "flashreport.bat" file to the same location as AccessChk (flash_report.bat and accesschk.exe should be in the same location). Please note that unless you have file extensions visible you might not see the .exe and .bat parts of the file name.

3. Install Flash Player again so that it is in the working state

4. Right click "flashreport.bat" and select "Run as administrator"

5. A window will appear briefly, then close. A new file named "flashreport.txt" will be created.

6. Rename this file to "flashreport_good.txt"

7. Reboot your system, or do whatever is needed so that Flash is no longer working properly and repeat 4.

8. Save the new flashreport.txt as flashreport_bad.txt.

Please email both of these reports along with a link to your forum thread to ccampbel@adobe.com

In addition, please let us know if the Flash Player installer name you ran ends with "aih". And finally, if it did not end with "aih", did you start the installer using the download dialog's "run" button or did you double click on the .exe after saving the file?

I have the same problem as the others-I went ahead and performed your instructions and just emailed them to that address. So far the solutions given in this thread haven't fixed my problem.

Oh! I did notice in a brief comparison of the two text files that the "Bad" report is about 300 million bytes smaller at the "Directory Listing: system32\macromed\flash\" part, down where it says Total Files Listed, the 'Dir(s)' is smaller in the bad report, if that's any significance.

Follow the clean install procedures http://forums.adobe.com/thread/928315, BUT also make sure that your MACROMEDIA folders have full permissions for administrators and rwx for users. I don't know what program would have changed/corrupted my permissions, it is possible that they were legacy permissions from an earlier installation of Flash Player.